John Adams to Cotton Tufts

It was yesterday only that I received your Favour of Nov. 26, which contains many
Things which you mentioned in a posteriour Letter which I have answered.1

I am glad you purchased the Pasture and Marsh.2 I accepted your Bill at sight and it was paid to Mr. Elworthy at sight fifty Pounds.
I wish you to repair the House in Boston, and to go on purchasing Bits of Marsh and
Wood, if you can find them at moderate Prices, but I am not zealous about this. You
may draw upon me, to the amount of Three hundred Pounds when you please, and also
to pay for Veseys Place if he will sell it reasonably, and provided you can obtain
a good { 89 } Profit upon Exchange. With this purchase I Stop my Land Projects, but poor as it is,
it lies so situated that I wish it added to my little territory.

My Son John Quincy will embark in the Packet at L'Orient, for New York, and will be
with you before Commencement I hope, perhaps he will deliver this.3

Charles as well as John I hope will enter Colledge this summer and I hereby place
them both under your Superintendence. I pray you to pay all their Bills and draw upon
me for the Moneys necessary. It is my Intention that both of them shall be accountable
to you for their Expences of every kind, and receive nothing but by your Order. They
must be as frugal as possible, otherwise I shall find the Utmost difficulty to get
along with them.

Dr. Franklin has been soliciting for Years, to get his Grandson appointed a Minister
abroad,4 Supposing no doubt that his own Services, would prevail: I know too well the Character
of my Countrymen, to believe that they will thus impute the Merit of the Parent to
the Offspring, and therefore instead of proposing my son for publick Employments,
I am Sending him to qualify himself for private ones. I might retain him as my private
Secretary, But I will not educate him in such a state of Dependence upon Congress
nor my self. He shall Stand on his own Legs, place himself on a Level with the Youth
his Contemporary Countrymen, and become a Town Meeting Man first, if he ever wishes
for public Employment.

You ask my Opinion concerning the 4[th] Article of the Treaty of Peace. I wish to avoid being quoted upon these Points. I
cannot See the Propriety of the Legislatures interfering. If a Jury determine the
Interest to be a bona fide debt, there is no Remedy. An Explanation will never be
obtained unless a Minister should be sent to London, if then. We have written and
demanded long since, but have no Answer from the British Ministry. In short they are
determined not to treat in France. These Interferences of the Legislatures will be
construed Violations of the Treaty and the great Posts upon the Frontier will be pretended
to be held against Treaty for this Reason. But the little Interests of Individuals
in such Governments as ours, will if We are not cautious, disturb publick Interests
of infinitely greater Magnitude, and involve our Reputation and even our public Faith.

Whether England and France can import Timber and Lumber from Denmark cheaper than
from America I know not. I dont believe they can. But if they could they should consider
how they are to pay. There { 90 } is a great difference between paying Cash and paying in Produce and Manufactures.

Shewing what I had written to Madam she has made me sick of purchasing Veseys Place.
Instead of that therefore you may draw upon me, for two hundred Pounds at as good
an Exchange as you can obtain and lay it out in such Notes as you judge most for my
Interest, so that the Interest may be a little Fund for assisting you in paying the
Expences of the Education of my Children. Indeed if you See a Prospect of making any
considerable Advantage in this Way, for me, you may draw upon me for more.

My regards to you Lady & son, and believe me with great Affection your Friend

4. JA had first objected to Franklin's efforts to promote William Temple Franklin when
the Doctor arranged, in Oct. 1782, to have his grandson named secretary to the peace
commission without JA's prior approval (JA, Diary and Autobiography, 3:38–39, and note 3, 102–103). On 22 July 1783, Franklin wrote R. R. Livingston, secretary for foreign affairs,
that young William was qualified to head a mission, and informed Livingston that both
Swedish and Danish officials had asked him whether his grandson might not be named
an envoy to their courts (Wharton, ed., Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev., 6:586). And on 27 June 1784, JA wrote to Elbridge Gerry that he suspected Franklin of trying to secure his grandson's
succession to his mission at Versailles when he returned to America. Franklin's suggestion
of Sweden as an appropriate post for William, JA wrote, “is only a stalking Horse” (LbC, Adams Papers). William Temple Franklin never did receive another diplomatic appointment.